I decided to step up my game to the next level, and one
cannot be considered serious if he doesn't use all the technological means at
his disposal for learning and improving. In this case, I decided I needed the
latest version of the famous Chessbase database program, previously I had
Chessbase 12. I discovered in Chessbase 14 there are some new features which
are extremely useful. I got it with Megabase 2017.
Megabase is a database of all games played in the last 500
years. The first game present in the database is from 1475! The database has
nearly 7 millions games, with regular updates, which keeps it current with new
games, every other week especially for those who have an opening repertoire,
and want to see if there are any novelties.
I'd like to share my excitement, and outline some new
features I found quite interesting in Chessbase 14.
One friendly GM recommended me to watch games with a big
rating gap. Generally these games are played in Open tournaments, where for
reason of pairings the first and second rounds see players rated 1900-2100
playing against 2500-2700.
The friendly GM told me to watch at least 500 games with
such gap. I found some monthly collection of PGNs from latest tournaments which
had some, but it was tedious at best trying to find them within a file with
2-4000 games. In chess at the moment we have a case of Too Much Information, or
TMI, as GM Soltis likes to call it.
 |
| GM Soltis |
Instead with Chessbase 14, to find the games I needed was
just a matter of clicks, let me show you, how I did!
I opened my Megabase 2017. and clicked on Filter list.
Then appeared the filter games mask, and I left the rating
between 2500 and 3500, and clicked on "difference," after that I
wrote 600, and clicked OK.
Surprise, surprise... in few seconds the Megabase 2017, gave
me over 8000 games to watch, which had such rating gap!
This is one of those games which I found particularly
interesting, because over and over I saw how the GM had a better vision and
calculation skills compared to the amateur, especially when evaluating the
final position, after many exchanges, with the mind's eye.
 |
| GM Reshevsky |
The funny thing of creating such database is that I found
also the upsets, like when a 1900+ rated player beats a former world champion
in a simul:
 |
| Smyslov world champion from 1957 to 1958 |
41.Kg4 Ne3+ 0-1
Mr. Fong likely tried to repeat the exploit obtained in this
game, in another simul given by Smyslov always in 1976, but this time the former
world champion was ready, and punished him quickly!
But the surprises are not finished, there are two players
which are my favorites, one is Bronstein, the other Spassky.
 |
| Bronstein |
 |
| Spassky |
In the last couple of days I felt the craving to watch Spassky's games, similar to the craving for chocolate! But I didn't know which games. I wanted to watch exciting games. Like a collection of Spassky's gems. But such book has not been written. So what to do, to satisfy this chess desire? Once more Chessbase 14 is where to turn to for satisfying this kind of craving!
I opened my trusted Megabase 2017, opened the search mask,
wrote Spassky Boris in the first game data window, and 1-0 as result, then I
passed to the tab: position, and clicked on "sacrifice", and once
more hit Okay!
The result was more than 180 games where Spassky had played
a sacrifice!!
Yes, Chessbase 14 can create the book of my dreams, at my
request, with few mouse clicks!
Here one of the games with sacrifices, played by Spassky
against another great player, whose name is used to describe one of the
branches of the opening we call Sicilian, the famous Taimanov.
I plan to do another database only of sacrifices played by
Kasparov, once I finish to see and study the sacrifices by Bronstein and
Spassky.
Obviously I don't use the new Chessbase 14 only for
searches, also if such searches can give some exciting results. I felt the need
to read some books to help my improvement. One of these books is: My best games
of chess 1908-1937, written by Alekhine.
I created a new db: Alekhine_Best_Games, and began manually
(instead of taking the PGN from somewhere) to input the games. Here I
discovered a new feature. The new Chessbase 14 while inserting the moves
highlights for each piece I touch the good squares, not so good, and definitely
bad, based on different colors. Green is for good, orange not so good, red bad,
and when it becomes brown or black that means a checkmate is near, so that move
shouldn't be played.
It's amazing how different hues of green, or orange show the
goodness of the move. And this is important also for the opening. Here we can
see how Fritz15 in Chessbase 14 evaluates the different developing squares for
the Ng1 and the Bf1.
Now, just for pleasure, I began to collect chess books, but
let's say that I'm on a trip, and I cannot bring with me 200 pounds of books, how
would I enjoy games annotated by Alekhine?
Yet again Chessbase 14, with Megabase 2017, gives me the
possibility to have all chess knowledge on my computer. I open Megabase 2017,
go under the annotator tab, and look for Alekhine, and I find 110 game
annotated by him.
I select them all, copy them, and make a new database with
just the games annotated by Alekhine, and that is like having a chess book
written by Alekhine.
Out of curiosity, GM Ftacnik has annotated 4961 games! While
Mihail Marin, one of my favorite GMs, 1500 games!
 |
| GM Marin |
I'd like to show one last cool new feature, also if there
are many more. It's called tactical analysis. It can be used to analyze a
single game, or many games. If used for one single game one just needs to open
the game, and go to the tab analysis
Then click on tactical analysis, and a new window will open.
The game will be automatically analyzed, and some training
questions will be created. Chessbase 14 will also define the type of endgame,
and show the strategical maneuvers of some pieces.
But the interesting part is not a one game analysis. During
the day I play several games online, then at night, before going to sleep, I
highlight the games I played, and want them analyzed.
It can take few hours, for this reason I do it at night, but
in the morning when I wake up, I find the games ready for review, already labeled
with medals, which indicate the type of tactics, sacrifices, or strategical
maneuvers I can find inside, and of course with many training questions to
solve for both sides. For example in the following position the blue arrows
were created by the engine which analyzed the game, to show the strategic idea
White had:
Once I open the game, going over it, I find some points
where I need to guess the correct move, like in the following image:
And up to the moment I don't find the right move, the
program doesn't let me continue to see the game, making this kind of training
quite useful to see my common errors, and how to solve them.
The real advantage of this training is relative to the improvement
of our own games. This means the middlegames and endgames we should focus our
training on. Such training should be based on the themes, and patterns we would
encounter originating from our opening repertoire. If we try to learn watching
games, such system is passive, and will not give a huge benefit. If instead we
play our games, then we ask the engine to analyze them, and the engine creates
training questions, that is quite an interactive, and a focused way of
learning!
Time to close this review: Chessbase 14 is an essential tool
every serious student must have, in order to progress on his chess journey. I
Hope you will enjoy this new Chessbase 14, as much I'm enjoying it now! And at
the same time reap the benefits of such tool for studying in your chess evolution,
and your games.
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